Motivation and educational performance

Most students want to do well at school, but why do they want to do well?

For the praise and respect of your teachers, friends or parents? For the chance to go to a better university and earn more money in a career? For the personal satisfaction of doing well? Because the subjects genuinely interest you and you want to investigate them in more depth? To feel like you are fulfilling your potential?

As you can see, the question has a lot of possible answers! Here we consider a few of them.

Bullet point 1 - Definitions, types and theories of motivation

What motivates us? A very simple place to start is whether our motivations are extrinsic or intrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivations are goals chosen by the individual, perhaps because of curiosity or their personal interest or enjoyment of a subject. It is the task itself, rather than any credit or reward that might occur from it, which the person finds most satisfying. For example:

Wanting to master playing the piano

The desire to paint the 'perfect' picture

Finding out more about Psychology because it's interesting and fun

Extrinsic motivation

The opposite of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation relies on factors outside of the individual. It is the outcome of the task which is motivating, rather than the task itself. Extrinsic motivators are often in the form of rewards. For example:

Wanting the applause of an audience after playing the piano.

The money that could be made from selling a painting

Doing your homework because then you'll get praised by your teacher, or for a good A-level grade.

Assignment 1 - what motivates you?

1. Make a list of things that you find motivating. After you have done this, sort them into two categories 'intrinsic' and 'extrinsic' motivations.

What is your primary source of motivation, intrinsic or extrinsic?

2. Think about these two types of motivation again. Which one would you prefer to have?

Do you think that one category of motivation is more effective than another?

Would it be better to be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, do you think?

Which type of motivation is encouraged more often in your school? Do you agree with this strategy?

Assignment 2 - Interviewing parents about their motivations

What motivates your parents? Create a 10 question questionnaire, designed to find out what factors motivate your parents in their work and lives. You are free to decide whether you use open or closed questions, likert scales or free responses etc. Your questions should allow you to see clearly if they are more motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic forces (or a combination of both), as well as the specific things that they find most motivating.Bring the results of your questionnaire into class for dicscussion.

STOP and think like a psychologist! Can you predict the theories before you even read them?

Some of the different approaches to education have different positions about whether extrinsic or intrinsic motivators are the most effective. Given what you know about the approaches, you should be able to predict their positions without even reading the theories themselves.

This is good practice for a section C style question - you are practising applying what you know to a new situation.

A behaviourist theory of motivation - Brophy (1981)

Behaviourism's position on motivation, like its position on everything, is that the environment is in control. This means that it is firmly on the side of extrinsic motivation being the most important.

A classic behaviourist statement! The environment and the surroundings are the thing that are in control...

One of the foundations of behaviourist theory is the idea of operant conditioning, where rewards and punishments shape future behaviour.

This is obviously completely relevant to the classroom (indeed we've already seen it used in the Alpha-to-Omega system for teaching dyslexic children to read). Perhaps the most simple example of an operant conditioning reinforcement that can be used in the classroom is that of praise.

Unlike in some other areas of life (computer games, riding a bike etc), in school it may not always be immediately obvious to a student if they are doing the right thing, so it becomes extremely important to help them know if they have done something impressive, and what that thing is.

However, sadly praise is not always effective (just like any other form of reinforcement). Look at the picture to the right. Would this improve the student's motivation to do well again next time? Why or why not?

Lower achieving students, those from poorer backgrounds and boys may all respond to praise more positively than other groups of people. Brophy also found that students with an 'external locus of control' (see the 'attributions' section for an explanation of what this means) benefitted more from praise. This point is used as an example in the 'Think like a psychologist' section below.

A helpful piece of praise?

See the 'effective praise' section below for the full explanation of when praise is and isn't helpful.

Assignment 2 - Rank the praise statements

The following are all pieces of teacher feedback for homework assignments. Rank them according to which you think would be the most effective, and which would be the least.

I'm glad that this time you finally followed the instructions. Well done!

You're the best student in the class by far. Well done!

Excellent work! Try to increase the number of difficult words in your writing next time for even more effect.

You've put loads of effort into this drawing, and I'm delighted with the neat lines and careful shading. Congratulations!

Excellent!

More punctuation needed. Great job!

Good ideas. Try to develop them more.

I'm really pleased to see that you've clearly taken more time over this piece, so that you've avoided any silly mistakes. Well done!

Very good, though I still think you could do better!

You make me proud to be your teacher when you follow the PEE structure so carefully and explain all your points! Well done!

﻿The theory of why and how it is that rewards are motivating is sometimes called incentive theory. The video below tells you more.﻿

A Humanistic theory of motivation - Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Remember the introduction to the ideas of the humanistic approach in the Approaches to Education section from the start of the year? If not, read them again!

How would an approach like the Humanistic approach treat the subject of motivation? What things would they say are important factors in our behaviour? Without even looking below, you should be able to guess whether this would be an intrinsic or extrinsic theory of motivation! WORK IT OUT NOW!

Abraham Maslowproposed that human motivation relied on two sets of needs, which could be organised into a hierarchy. At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic deficiency needs, with the more advanced growth needs above them. At the top of the pile is self-actualisation - fulfilling your true potential.

Why would a humanistic psychologist think that a child choosing their own punishment would be more effective?

There are many slightly different versions of Maslow's famous pyramid. Don't worry about the differences, just notice that they all share the same basic structure

This hierarchy only has five levels rather than seven, as it has put all of the three growth needs together at the top... but you can see that it still clearly follows the same basic pattern.

Does your mood change when you're hungry? If you're scared, do you feel able to appreciate the beauty of a sunset? Maslow would say that these are examples of the hierarchy in action; when the lower levels are not fulfilled, the higher ones can't be either.

Relating Maslow to education... What is the teacher's job in a humanistic classroom?

It is rare (though sadly not unheard of) for students in school to be lacking in the most basic needs such as food, security and safety. With this in mind, what is the teacher's job in a humanistic classroom?

Much of a humanist teacher's effort would be put into developing a child's self-esteem. If a child has high self esteem (they feel good about themselves), then they will also feel that they can set and achieve appropriate goals (they will have high self-efficacy). Note the link to Bandura's theory in the next bullet point.

This form of education is known as child-centred, and is typified by the child taking responsibility for their education and owning their learning.

The humanist teacher is a facilitator, not a disseminator, of knowledge. This means that they help the student to find information for themselves, rather than making them learn parrot-fashion every thing the teacher says.

There are therefore two key concerns for a humanistic teacher. Facilitating the child's learning, and improving their self-esteem. Together these should increase motivation.

If you pay a child a dollar to read a book, as some schools have tried, you not only create an expectation that reading makes you money, you also run the risk of depriving the child for ever of the value of it. Markets are not innocent. Michael Sandel

Evaluation skills - contrasting different approaches

An effective exam technique for evaluation is to compare and contrast one theory with another one. Here, it might be a good idea to compare humanisitic theories with behaviourist ones. E.g...

"The behaviourists might advocate positive reinforcement such as praise, and punishment in the form of negative criticism. Both praise and blame are rejected by the humanists. Children can become addicted to praise and will not work if their efforts go unnoticed. Humanists want to produce students who take satisfaction from learning something new, even though nobody is around to witness it."

Assignment 3 - Hierarchy of advertising needs...

Advertisers have long appealed to the hierarchy of needs when trying to sell their products. Adverts will often target one specific place on the hierarchy, trying to convince you that their product is the thing that you need to fulfil that level. For example:

Watch the entertaining 1960s advertising video to the left. Which level of the hierarchy is it appealing to?

Find a magazine or newspaper that you have in your house. Cut out two advertisments from the pages and bring them in, ready to discuss the areas of the hierarchy that they are appealing to.

Evaluation of Maslow's hierarchy

The most significant limitation of Maslow's theory concerns his methodology. Maslow's judgements of self-actualised people were extremely subjective and based entirely on his own personal opinion...

... It is therefore likely to be open to bias, reducing the validity of the conclusions made.

His ideas of what consisted of self-actualisation were ethnocentrically biased, and not likely to be representative of other ethnicities or cultures.

The concept of self-actualisation is unquantifiable - it can't be measured scientifically. It therefore can't be tested, so there is no scientific evidence to support the theory!

Another criticism concerns Maslow's assumption that the lower needs must be satisfied before a person can achieve their potential and self-actualize. Is this really true? Can people living in poverty not feel love? What about poor artists who gave us works of genius?

Maslow's work shifted the focus from looking at 'what was wrong' with behaviour onto 'how we can get behaviour to be right'. This has been an influential positive shift.

His ideas have been very widely adopted, especially in business circles.

Stimulated much further research about the nature of intrinsic motivation, which is still ongoing today. E.g. see this video summarising the importance of encouraging intrinsic motivation at work.

People have drawn hierarchies for almost everything you can think of on the internet... except teachers. Anyone fancy having a go?

Cognitive theories of motivation are concerned with the way we think about behaviour, and the strategies and styles of planning that we use in order to try to achieve our goals. Cognitive theories tend to take into account both intrinsic and extrisic motivational factors, looking at a person's internal drives but also at the pressure and rewards that they might receive from others. One cognitive theory is that of David McClelland (1953).

Need for achievement (N-Ach) refers to an individual's desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills, control, or high standards. Another psychologist, Henry Murray, called it

"intense, prolonged and repeated efforts to accomplish something. To work with singleness of purpose towards a high and distant goal. To have the determination to win".

There are two possible causes of high N-Ach:

Hope of success

Fear of failure

High levels of either of these will lead to the same end result... a person needing to accomplish tasks successfully if they are to maintain their self-esteem.

How do we increase N-Ach?

As N-Ach is a personality type (and as personality is supposed to be a fairly fixed trait), it could see that there is not much anyone can do to increase N-Ach. However, McClelland lists a number of ways that N-Ach can be affected by the environment:

Parents who encouraged independence in childhood

Praise and rewards for success

Association of achievement with positive feelings

Association of achievement with one's own competence and effort, not luck

A desire to be effective or challenged

Goal Setting Abilities

Teachers can clearly have some impact on a number of these. See bullet point two for more specifics on how to achieve this.

Measuring N-Ach - The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

What does this picture suggest to you?

The TAT is a test of imagination that presents the subject with a series of ambiguous pictures, and the subject is asked to develop a spontaneous story for each picture. The assumption is that the subject will project his or her own needs into the story.

Stories are measured according to the level of needs of achievement, affiliation, and power displayed in the story.

"I'm not trying that... I might not win!"

One of the slightly counter-intuitive aspects of the N-Ach theory concerns the types of tasks that people with high and low N-Ach are likely to try:

High N-Ach people will only tend to take on moderately difficult tasks, ones that are not too hard or too easy. They will see success in easy tasks as worthless, and avoid tasks that they may not succeed in... leading to a preference for moderately difficult but attainable challenges.

Low N-Ach people will be less concerned with success, so they will be more likely to take on very easy or very difficult tasks.

The reason for this, as can be seen to the left in a helpful diagram from Gary Sturt's website, is to do with internal and external attributions. See the 'attributions' section below (bullet point three) for more on this link.

Using praise effectively (Brophy 1981)

Jere Brophy (1981) suggested the following conditions to make sure that praise is used effectively:

Make praise specific to the particular behavior being reinforced.

Teachers should specifically identify what is good about the behaviour that they are praising. Phrases such as “Nice work,” “Good job,” or “You’re so smart!” are not helpful and in fact may reduce motivation to try hard the next time (praising children and adolescents for being smart leads them to be more likely to beliwve that intelligence is fixed and that they can't therefore do anything about it). Praise about the student's effort is far more effective.

Make sure praise is sincere

Students have to believe the teacher when they say that their performance is praiseworthy. It is therefore really important that the teacher seems sincere in what they say. Praise also undermines intrinsic motivation when teachers:■ praise everyone, because students are not likely to attribute praise to anything special (Brophy, 1981);■ praise students for easy tasks, because students see the praise as undeserved and they may perceive praise for performing an easy task as an indication of low ability.

Teachers tend to give praise for success relatively infrequently, only about 10% of the time, suggesting that they do not consistently offer praise despite observing many examples of successful performance in their students (Brophy, 1981). Teachers may also shift their criteria for “success,” leading them to praise a student for a certain achievement on one occasion and not on another (Mehan, 1974). Teachers also sometimes praise incorrect responses in addition to correct responses (Anderson, Evertson, & Brophy, 1979). For example, teachers gave similar praise to students whose oral reading was errorless and to students whose reading contained mistakes.

Think of some instances when you have been praised. Did the praise increase your intrinsic motivation or decrease it? Why do you think this happened?

Research currently under way in schools in the UK is looking at whether uncertain reward is effective in increasing student motivation and attainment. Online games are integrated into the lessons, and these are able to give rewards... but the students don't know when they will get rewarded. This may encourage continuous high standards, rather than just working up to each reward and then stopping.

Evaluating praise as a motivational strategy

Praise can be a very effective strategy for some students (e.g. lower achieving students, those from poorer backgrounds, boys or students with an 'external locus of control' - as mentioned above)...

A very simple strategy for teachers to use! It is free, easy to do and requires no planning on the part of the teacher.

Hugely influential - praise is used in schools (and other settings) all around the world, so the theory clearly has useful and important applications to the real world.

Not effective for all students (see left)

Only effective if used in the correct way (see the section above). If it is not done well praise may actually decrease motivation!

As with all behaviourist theories, this is deterministic. This raises a number of questions... For example, this gives students no choice in the change of their behaviour or in their own motivation. Teachers manipulate students' motivation without the agreement of the students themselves! This raises ethical issues of consent, for example.

Increasing N-Ach. Improving motivation by cognitive strategies

Some of the ways that teachers can encourage students to develop their N-Ach, as identified by McClelland (1953) are...

Setting challenging but realistic goals.

Goal and target setting is a simple way to get students to become motivated towards completing a task. Think of the SMART targets that you create in school, or click on the picture to the left to see another example. The goals should be realistic, because (if you remember from the N-Ach section above) high N-Ach is encouraged by moderately difficult tasks (not too easy, not too difficult). Goal setting is now used very widely in schools and, if used effectively, has been shown to assist pupils' progress.

Associating achievement with one's own competence and effort, not luck

Just like the effective praise section above, it is important that students come to associate success with effort, rather than luck. This can be done through specific praise, such as "you tried really hard on this piece of work and it has lead to a big improvement, well done!"

Bandura's (1977) theory of self-efficacy

According to Bandura, self-efficacy is "the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations." In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. To do this, they clearly have to feel in control of their own success and future... hence self-efficacy! Take this simple test to find things for which you have high and low self-efficacy.

People with a strong sense of self-efficacy:

View challenging problems as tasks to be mastered

Develop deeper interest in the activities in which they participate

Form a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities

Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments

People with a weak sense of self-efficacy:

Avoid challenging tasks

Believe that difficult tasks and situations are beyond their capabilities

Focus on personal failings and negative outcomes

Quickly lose confidence in personal abilities

Many motivational slogans refer to the idea of self-efficacy

In this diagram you can see some of the influences that might affect self-efficacy. The terms might seem difficult but they're not. Vicarious influences = observing others. Enactive influences = success at tasks. Persuasory influences = praise and reinforcement etc.
Click to enlarge.

Increasing self-efficacy

There are a few key ways that we can increase people’s self-efficacy:

Firstly, through experiences of success (unsurprisingly), as this helps us to believe in our own ability to succeed.

Secondly, it is increased if we are making internal attributions about our control over certain situations (in other words, feeling that we are responsible for the success, not luck or other factors outside of our control).

Thirdly (as you might expect for Bandura), it is increased by observing other people experience success.

These helpful diagrams illustrate the way that success and self-efficacy are related. Click to enlarge.

Sounding familiar yet...? You've heard this all before!

You should already be starting to see large areas of overlap between some of the theories covered so far. Both N-Ach and self-efficacy theories involve trying to make people feel like they are in control and that their effort is a crucial factor in the success of any task. Both also highlight how important it is for students to experience success if they are to stay motivated.That's not all... as behaviourist theories stress these same points as well! Brophy (1981) identified that praise was more effective when it highlighted a student's effort rather than their innate abilities. Behaviourists also believe that success is crucial to motivation, as success is just another example of a reinforcement!

If you understand these links, what this means is that you will be able to use almost identical points in a Section B question. If you are evaluating the theories, then all three will have very similarapplications to real life, as all three are actually encouraging very similar things in the classroom.

It's going to get even more interlinked as well! The next section introduces the idea of attributions, which could be said to lie at the bottom of most of the theories on this page! Understand them, and you will probably understand everything!

Evaluating ideas for increasing motivation

Remember the four ways that you can evaluate information in the exam? No? Well here it is again then...

Exam hint - evaluating explanations at A2

When you are asked to evaluate a theory in the A2 exam, there are four key areas for which you can receive credit. These are:

Appraisal - giving the positives of the theory

Criticism - giving the negatives

Applications - showing how the theory can be used in the real world

Comparison to another theory/approach - critically comparing the theory to other competing explanations

The section above told you that you could apply the theories in this section to the classroom, using very similar information for each one. One other good idea for evaluating cognitive and behavioural theories of motivation is to contrast them to the humanistic approach. For example...

These approaches allow comparison between children, so that progress and attainment can be accurately measured. They could disagree with the humanistic approach's position (see right) and argue that their model is more useful for increasing motivation in the real world, where people are regularly measured and tested.

It also allows for students to track their own progress by measuring their own performance against their previous performance. Being able to clearly see how far they have improved should greatly increase motivation.

The humanistic approach would disagree with the use of procedures and test which measure performance in relation to other people. They would say that students need to be judged as individuals and that standardised testing ignores the unique talents of each individual.

The requirement for success and positive feedback from teachers can lead to an emphasis on simple 'correct' answers and basic memorisation, rather than deep understanding.

Bullet point 3 - Motivation issues

Attribution theory (e.g. Weiner, 1984) - "so why did that happen?"

Attribution theory (Weiner, 1984) suggests that when people experience something, they usually try and work out a cause for it. This is called attributing a cause, or making an attribution. There are three mains dimensions for an attribution. Attributions can be:

First, the cause of the success or failure may be internal or external. That is, we may succeed or fail because of factors that we believe have their origin within us or because of factors that originate in our environment. This quiz can help you discover if you have an internal or external locus of control.

Second, the cause of the success or failure may be either stable or unstable. If the we believe cause is stable, then the outcome is likely to be the same if we perform the same behavior on another occasion. If it is unstable, the outcome is likely to be different on another occasion.

Third, the cause of the success or failure may be either controllable or uncontrollable. A controllable factor is one which we believe we ourselves can alter if we wish to do so. An uncontrollable factor is one that we do not believe we can easily alter.

Note each factor is distinct from the other two categories. An internal factor can be controllable (we can control our effort by trying harder) or uncontrollable (most people cannot easily change their basic intellectual ability or change from being an introvert to being an extrovert). Likewise, an external factor can be controllable (a person failing a difficult course could succeed by taking an easier course) or uncontrollable (if calculus is difficult because it is abstract, it will still be abstract no matter what we do).

Lets look at these in a little bit more depth, with the help of an example. Let's say that a woman has an unsuccessful date. There are a number of different ways that she could explain this (see below):

Firstly, look at the internal and external sections. Notice how the four boxes for internal all deal with things personal and intrinsic to the person themselves, whereas the others are more to do with the environment.

Next, look at the stable and unstable boxes. You will see that stable attributions are ones that are not likely to change much over time (attractiveness, personality etc), whereas unstable ones will (mood, for example).

Now do the same with the controllable/uncontrollable boxes. The controllable attributions can clearly be altered and controlled to some extent by the person. Uncontrollable ones cannot.

Finally, notice how this diagram illustrates how these three dimensions can all interact, creating eight different possibilities for attributions. An attribution can be external, stable and controllable, for example.

Weiner (1984) said that students attributions could lead them to attribute their performance to one of four factors:

Task difficulty

Luck

Ability

Effort

You should be able to work out which dimensions of attributions would lead to each of these factors... for instance, 'Luck' is an external, unstable and uncontrollable attribution. Can you work out the others?

Once you've thought about it, click here for a suggested diagram of the answer. Bear in mind that this is a simplified version, in reality, the factors may overlap with more than one box (the phrase "you make your own luck" is a good example of how people might think that luck is partly controllable, for example).

An example of the different attributions that might be made by people with either an external or internal locus of control, according to Weiner's theory.

The consequences of different attributions

Making different attribution can have hugely different outcomes for a student's self-esteem and expectations of success next time. the table below summarises these for each of Weiner's four factors.

Attribution theory can seem very complicated and confusing at first, so take your time to get it clear in your own mind. Do NOT rush past it, as understanding this will help you to understand many of the theories that we've covered so far more deeply. Ask for help if you need it. Either way... make sure you understand the theory before you go on.

Questions to test your understanding (DO NOT GO ON UNTIL YOU CAN ANSWER THESE!):

From what you now know about the theory, can you suggest which of the eight attribution styles in the diagram will be the most harmful for a person's self esteem?

Which attributional style will be the best?

Once you have worked this out, can you think of things that a teacher could do to encourage a healthy attributional style over an unhealthy one?

An important assumption of attribution theory is that people will interpret their environment in such a way as to maintain a positive self-image.

That is, they will attribute their successes or failures to factors that will enable them to feel as good as possible about themselves. In general, this means that when learners succeed at an academic task, they are likely to want to attribute this success to their own efforts or abilities; but when they fail, they will want to attribute their failure to factors over which they have no control, such as bad teaching or bad luck.

However, this is not always the case. A harmful style is to attribute all negative events to internal, stable, uncontrollable causes, a thinking pattern than can be found in depression, but which is also relevant to low-performing students in school.

A classic question of attributions... in this case an internal, stable, uncontrollable attribution (I am ill tempered) against an internal, unstable, controllable one (I am tired)

Attribution theory can be nicely represented in tables or diagrams, such as this mind map. Can you find your own visual way of representing the theory that you find useful?

Assignment 5 - test your memory

Have a go at this 6 mark section C question from memory

(a) Describe one theory which explains why we attribute causes to behaviour. [6]

Make sure you can write at least half a page clearly describing Weiner's theory. Once you've mentioned the three dimensions and the four factors it shouldn't be too hard to write enough - the key is that you are able to understand and it describe it clearly.

Application of attribution theory in schools

Changing attributions

It should be clear that, if a student is making the wrong attributions about negative results, it will harm their motivation. This idea (that we need to change how we think about events if we are to improve ourselves) is not a new one...DeCharms (1972) suggested that changing the locus of control also changed the motivations of the student.

Students with an external locus of control tend to be influenced more by extrinsic motivations (rewards etc), though of course you knew this already, because it's also what Brophy found in his research on praise! Another overlap in the information...

On the other hand, DeCharms found that students who feel in control of their own progress and achievement are more intrinsically motivated. This suggests that we should encourage children to develop intrinsic motivations as a part of creating a more internal locus of control (e.g. by encouraging them to pursue personal interests for their own satisfaction).

How does a teacher encourage an internal locus of control?

Stress a student's personal responsibility for performance - in other words make it clear to the student that they are in control (internal locus of control).

Students will be most persistent at academic tasks under the following circumstances: o If they attribute their both their academic successes and their failures to internal, unstable, factors over which they have control (e.g., effort) Some other internal stable attributions (e.g. ability) can increase motivation in cases when the child is successful repeatedly, but this strategy will not be helpful if the child experiences failure.

Still sound familiar...? It is!

Again, the applications and strategies for teachers of this theory should feel very familiar. Encouraging an internal locus of control and emphasising a student's effort is exactly what is recommended by N-Ach and self-efficacy theories as well!

Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness was first observed in dogs by Martin Seligman, who found that if dogs believed they were helpless, they would fail to attempt to escape from a bad situation, even when an escape was possible. This idea quickly came to be applied to human behaviour. Learned helplessness in a school environment might involve a student giving up, not trying any harder, or avoiding work. This video is a great introduction.

In schools learned helplessness could occur through a student receiving low marks repeatedly, especially if they then begin to make internal, stable and uncontrollable attributions about those low marks (e.g. the marks are because they are stupid).

Dweck et al (1978) conducted an observational study into the conditions that were more likely to produce learned helplessness in students. They found that there was a gender difference in the feedback the children received. Girls tended to receive less positive feedback and more criticism than boys!

Dweck et al followed up these findings with an experiment. The first part involved anagrams, some of which were solvable and some not, in which the same patterns of gender-biased feedback were maintained. Finally the children were asked to solve problems, but they were never allowed to finish them. All of the children were told that they had not done well on these final problems. However, the girls were more likely to attribute this failure to a lack of ability, whereas boys attributed it to a lack of effort or to the experimenter being too strict. In other words the girls seemed to display more learned helplessness than the boys!

Conclusions from Dweck et al's study

Dweck et al clearly seem to show that the quality and frequency of feedback, especially negative feedback, on children's work can have an effect on their likelihood of developing learned helplessness. This has clear useful applications for teachers in the classroom and in their marking.

However it is hard to conclude from this that the conditions of the experiment caused the difference between the groups, as a quasi-experiment where the two conditions (boys and girls) had already been treated differently for 11 years before the experiment began, it is likely that the two groups were already very different even before they were treated differently in the experiment. Participant variables are likely to have confounded the results.

(N.B. This doesn't mean that learned helplessness isn't more likely to arise in girls because of their treatment, but it may well be a process that takes place slowly over a number of years, rather than happening after the experience of just a single experimental condition).

STOP and think like a psychologist!

The three sections above contain a lot of information; which can seem intimidating at first. However... ALMOST ALL OF THESE THEORIES OVERLAP!! The behaviourist and cognitive theories all link in with each other a great deal, with attribution theory often at the centre of things.

What this means is that if you try to learn all of the theories separately, you will find them very time consuming and complicated... but if you can understand how these theories work, then you will be able to predict the points you need to make about a theory even before you've learnt the details. You will also be able to use the same point in a number of different areas, saving on revision. Lets take an example:

Brophy (1981) found that students with an external locus of control are more receptive to praise.

If you understand the theories, then this statement should be completely obvious. Of course someone who is more influenced by events outside of them will respond better to reinforcement from the environment!

If you understand this... then you can start to use this information in a number of ways... For example in an essay evaluating 'Behaviourist theories of motivation' I might say:

Brophy (1981) found that students with an external locus of control are more receptive to praise. This illustrates that praise is not effective in all situations and that teachers should be very careful when, and to whom, they use praise. The Behaviourist theory of motivation through operant conditioning can therefore clearly not be a full explanation of motivation; other factors must also play a part.(... this might then be a good time to contrast the Behaviourist theory to one or more of the cognitive theories...)

So far so good, but the same information could also be used to make a point in an essay on 'Cognitive theories of motivation'! For example:

Students' attributions have clear applications to what teachers should do in the classroom. For example, Brophy (1981) found that students with an external locus of control are more receptive to praise. This shows that teachers need to be aware of the attributional style of their students. Students who tend to make external attributions will be more responsive to reinforcements and praise, whereas students with an internal locus of control may respond better to information about their mastery of the task.

Attribution theory is the key...

Make a real effort to understand attribution theory, as this theory underpins many of the other cognitive ideas that you cover here. If you understand attribution theory, then you should be able to explain...

Why praise is effective for some people and not others (people with an internal locus of control will respond better to praise than people who think that their performance is out of their hands).

Need for Achievement theory (high N-Ach people will tend to make internal attributions, whereas low N-Ach people will make external ones)

Self-efficacy (feeling in control will mean that you are making internal attributions, which is usually a more positive thing than external attributions)

Changing attributions (if you want to get people to make internal, unstable and controllable attributions about things, then it makes sense that you emphasise internal, unstable, controllable things... such as effort).

End of section essay writing exercise - section B

Here, have a go at both parts of a section B question on motivation and education.

2 a) Describe what psychologists have discovered about motivation and education. [8]2 b) Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about motivation and education and include a discussion of competing approaches. [12]

First read this document, which covers the skills that we want you to learn when approaching these questions. In summary, you need to try to mention a range of information in question a), so try to mention things from all three bullet points in the specification (so here, something from 'theories of motivation', 'improving motivation' and 'issues with motivation').

For the question b), try to evaluate using issues and debates (same ones as from AS level). On this page, issues such as reductionism, determinism, ethics, data collection methods, scientific-ness, objectivity and other have been mentioned. Use these in your evaluations! Remember to use a PEE format if you find it helpful.

One final point. Make sure you answer the specific question asked! The 2 b) question will always have a little extra requirement in it, where it will ask you to focus your discussion on one specific area or issue. Here is it 'competing explanations', which just means that you have to compare and contrast the view of at least two different theoretical approaches. At least a paragraph should consequently be devoted to this.

Generic mark schemes are given below. Read them carefully before you start writing and make sure your essays fulfill all the requirements. Please submit your essays through the form on the home page.

Section C question

As you may already know, Section C requires you to answer 1 question from a choice of 2. The questions will ask you to apply what you know to a new scenario or area.It has two parts; one 6 mark recall question and one 8 mark application question.

For example: 4. Imagine you teach psychology and your students have to calculate statistical tests. One student just looks at the numbers without trying and says “I can’t do maths”. He appears to have what is called ‘learned helplessness’.(a) Describe one theory which explains why we attribute causes to behaviour. [6](b) Suggest how negative attributions, such as learned helplessness, can be changed. [8]

The first question is a straightforward recall question. This is the longest question you will get which could focus on just a single theory. You need to write about half a page, so a simple revision check is to make sure that you can write half a page of description about every idea/theory/study that is specifically mentioned in the specification.

The second question allows you to be creative. There is no single right answer. All you have to do is give practical and specific ideas for how you might implement the theory you have described in the first question into the scenario they give you. About a page should be a good length. Here you have to suggest how attributions could be changed to combat learned helplessness. If you understand the theories above, you will hopefully have a good idea of how this might be done. It takes some getting used to writing this way, but it is an area that, with a little bit of practice, you will be able to do very well on.

Have a go at the questions above. Please submit your essays through the form on the home page.